466 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the view from both directions. Hundreds of automobiles had been 

 wrecked because of this curve and there was a record of 35 deaths 

 charged against it. The dangerous condition has now been eluninated 

 by the State with Federal aid, and though it was necessary to spend 

 $17,000 in less than a quarter of a mile, none of those who 

 use the road need to be convinced of the wisdom of the expendi- 

 ture or the value of the improvemment. 



In Illinois the Lincoln Highway has been improved for almost the 

 entire distance across the State, from Chicago to Clinton, with Federal 

 aid. So also has been the old national pike from Marshall at the 

 eastern line to St. Louis at the west. Another trans-State road has 

 been built from Chicago to Rock Island, with a branch southward to 

 St. Louis ; and a branch from the old national pike runs southward to 

 the bridge at Cairo. Together these roads form the principal trunk 

 lines of the State, and they have been improved almost entirely as 

 Federal-aid projects. There can be no doubt in the minds of the 

 people of Illinois as to the value of this work, which has ^iven them 

 in the brief space of six years a major network of magnihcent high- 

 ways covering the whole State. 



A number of important bridge projects have been brought to 

 completion during the year, among them the bridge over the Missouri 

 River between Bismarck and Mandan, N. Dak. This is the only 

 highway bridge over the river north of Yankton and is one of the 

 notable bridge structures recently built in this country. Another 

 bridge of importance has been completed over the Apalachicola 

 River at River Junction, Fla., the only highway bridge across that 

 stream south of Columbus, Ga. In Missouri there has long been need 

 for several bridges to span the lower Missouri and connect the two 

 sections into which the State is divided by the river. The lack of 

 these crossings has been a most serious obstacle to communication, 

 and the proposals submitted by the State for the construction of 

 several bridges just before the close of the fiscal year are therefore of 

 great interest to the people of the State. 



These are merely instances of hundreds and thousands of improve- 

 ments in every State, each of which is a significant forward step in 

 the local community and the sum total of wliich will eventually mean 

 to the United States all the difference between the costly, unsafe, and 

 intermittent highway transportation of the past and the unhampered, 

 economical, convenient, and safe transportation which the developing 

 system of roads will eventually make possible in all sections. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ROADS. 



The Federal highway act imposes only one condition upon the 

 character of the roads to be built under it that has not obtained in 

 the work under the earlier Federal-aid road act. That condition is 

 that the primary or interstate roads shall have a width of surfacing 

 of at least 18 feet, unless certain well-defined conditions render such 

 a width impracticable. This provision of the act has been strictly 

 adhered to in the approval of projects submitted since the passage of 

 the act and no difficulty is anticipated in the future. 



The principles that have governed the character of the roads 

 built, as to grade and drainage and type of surfacing, are not affected 

 by the new act, and the bureau is continuing to approve surfaces of all 



